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Plenary, 05 Mar 2008

05 Mar 2008 · S3 · Plenary

Item of business

Wheelchair Users <br />(Human Rights)

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I thank Trish Godman for initiating this debate on an issue that is significant to all those who depend on wheelchairs to live their lives in as dignified and independent a manner as possible.

Last week, I had the privilege of sponsoring an event in the Parliament on behalf of Scotland's Commissioner for Children and Young People, which was entitled "Handle With Care" and was about the moving and handling issues that young people with disabilities and their carers encounter. Almost all the attendees where wheelchair users, and all of them had experienced problems in ensuring that they had the best chair for their disability. Given their ages, that will continue to be an issue for some time, as they grow, but all wheelchair users—regardless of age and whatever their disability—require the best wheelchair that can be provided to allow them the maximum possible social inclusion. Disability or not, we are talking about people who have hopes, aspirations and ambitions. They also have abilities, which their disabilities often overshadow for the able-bodied who, when they see someone in a wheelchair, see the chair, not the person sitting in it.

It is hard for people who are able bodied and who take mobility for granted to imagine how a person in a chair feels if they are dependent on it for their comfort and mobility. We should think, if we can, about what it means if the seat causes sores—the person is confined to bed for a long period while the chair is sent away and a new body mould is made. They are socially isolated for a long time and find themselves at a severe disadvantage that none of the rest of us, if we were feeling ill, would expect to have to put up with. As Trish Godman suggested, lacking a wheelchair in that way is a health issue.

Minor repairs to chairs, even just to a foot rest or a neck rest on a self-guiding chair, require two or more weeks to carry out. During that time, the person has to sit in a chair that is not made for them and, in most cases, is not suitable for them. Although the use of a supervised manual chair is a way of getting round that situation, it robs the person of the limited independence that they normally have. If we think of those frustrations, we can understand how wheelchair users feel every day when their chair has broken down or requires a repair. That point was emphasised to me by the visitors from Quarriers, whom I was pleased to meet and speak to earlier today—some of them are in the public gallery. It is a pleasure to see them here. I hope that we will have good news for them as soon as possible.

It is imperative to consult wheelchair users when formulating policy, right from the very start. We should listen to bodies such as the Scottish Disability Equality Forum and Quarriers, which have the expertise of disabled people and their carers. They have stated that disability issues have for too long been at the back of the queue when allocating resources. Quarriers and the Scottish Disability Equality Forum are not-for-profit agencies with great expertise in providing services to adults and children. They cover the whole range. I know that we are all grateful to them for their input and for providing us with facts and figures, which I hope the minister will examine to guide her response to this debate on the needs of wheelchair users.